BENGALURU: The High Court said that an order of sanction issued by a competent authority is not pre-requisite for filing a private complaint against a public servant.
Justice Anand Byrareddy made it clear in a judgment pronounced on Thursday in connection with a batch of criminal petitions filed by an assistant engineer and the Commissioner of the Hassan Urban Development Authority.
The judgment said, “Incidentally, the Apex Court has affirmed the order passed by the undersigned (Justice Byrareddy) in the case of M K Aiyappa. But in retrospect, it is seen that the settled legal position is that when the court merely refers the complaint for investigation, the court does not take cognizance, the need for a sanction is not warranted. The bar is for the court to take cognizance without a sanction and it cannot be construed that even the very receipt of a complaint is barred.”
The judge further said that the dictionary meaning assigned to the expression ‘cognizance’ has been misapplied, in ignoring settled principles established by earlier judgments of the Apex Court, rendered by larger benches. Hence, the point as to whether the private complaint against a public servant must be accompanied by an order of sanction is answered in the negative, the judge noted.
Case against school trustees stayed
The High Court on Friday stayed the criminal proceedings initiated against the trustees of Vibgyor High at Kammanahalli on Bannerghatta Road in the city. A criminal case was registered against the school for imparting education in English medium though they had obtained permission for Kannada medium only. Taking a critical view of the government for forcing schools on medium of instruction, Justice Anand Byrareddy observed, “Of late, schools run by the government have hardly one or two students in a class.” While granting an interim stay, the judge issued notice to Hulimavu police and Block Education Officer (BEO) Munireddy, who lodged the complaint against the trustees. The three trustees are Mumbai-based Dara H Sapatiwala, and Neville Minocher Bilimoria and Vishwanath Kumar of Bengaluru. The BEO had registered case under provisions of both Karnataka Education Act and the RTE Act, 2009 on charges of running an unregistered and unrecognised school. The trustees were also charged under Section 420 of IPC for cheating. The trustees contended that the allegation was they were running an English medium school in 2014-15 after obtaining recognition as a Kannada medium school. “That may be called a deviation, but not a criminal offence in view of the latest verdicts of the high court (in 2008) and apex court,” they claimed. They also claimed that they will not come under the purview of RTE Act as their school is an unaided minority institution.